TOM CLANCY CHAIN OF COMMAND

5 stars out of 5

This is the first Clancy book I've read in many years, and I'll admit a few things in this one that confused me a bit would have been obvious, I think, if I'd read at least the last couple of entries. That said, I was able to get into the swing of things rather quickly and, like the others I've read, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

At this point, Jack Ryan is President, his wife Cathy is holding her own as FLOTUS and son Jack is out in the field trying to keep America safe for democracy as part of a heavyweight clandestine organization. Ryan's pet annoyance at the moment is that generic drugs imported to America come from faraway and largely unregulated manufacturing facilities in foreign countries and are being counterfeited. His plan, for which he's pushing passage of a bill, is to build a U.S.-owned plant much closer to home and much easier to inspect.

Needless to say, that doesn't sit well with the owners of those foreign facilities, one of whom has decided to take matters into his own hands and squash the President's plan (if not the President himself). He and his dastardly henchmen and women have concocted a plan they think will do the trick: They'll kidnap the First Lady when she makes a keynote address at a medical convention in San Antonio.

Of course, there's much more going on here; sub-plots, like a couple of do-good physicians who have gone missing in a remote part of the world, a big and unexpected shake-up in Ryan's cabinet and cybersecurity attacks traced to a specific country provide diversion for readers. Overall, it's nonstop action, with just about all the loose ends wrapped up by the end one way or another - perfect encouragement for me to look forward to the next one. Meantime, thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for providing me a pre-release copy of this one. Well done!

Tom Clancy Chain of Command by Marc Cameron (G.P. Putnam's Sons, November 2021); 509 pp.